'Landmark Achievement': India Successfully Tests Hypersonic Vehicle, Joins Elite Club of US, Russia, China

India on Monday became the fourth country after the United States, Russia, and China to develop and successfully test Hypersonic Test Demonstrator Vehicle (HSTDV). It successfully demonstrated the Hypersonic air-breathing scramjet technology with the flight test of Hypersonic Technology Demonstration Vehicle (HSTDV) at 11:03 am from Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Launch Complex at Wheeler Island, off the coast of Odisha. This indigenous technology will pave the way towards the development of missiles traveling at six times the speed of sound (Mach 6).

The test of Hypersonic Test Demonstrator Vehicle (HSTDV), developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) was conducted at 11.03 am today using the Agni missile booster and lasted for five minutes. The Agni missile booster took the hypersonic vehicle to a height of 30 km after which the latter separated. Thereafter, the vehicle’s air intake opened and that led to the successfully firing of the test scramjet engine. The combustion lasted for more than 20 seconds with the vehicle achieving a speed of Mach 6. “The vehicle performed successfully on all the pre-determined parameters including the ability to handle combustion temperatures of over 2500 degrees Celsius as well as airspeed,” said a senior official.

People aware of the development said this test means that the DRDO will have the capacity to develop a hypersonic missile with a scramjet engine in the next five years, which will have the capacity to travel at more than two kilometers per second. The test was led by DRDO chief Satheesh Reddy and his hypersonic missile team. The HSTDV performed on all parameters, including combustion chamber pressure, air intake, and control guidance, the agency said.

“The DRDO has today successfully flight tested the Hypersonic Technology Demonstrator Vehicle using the indigenously developed scramjet propulsion system. With this success, all critical technologies are now established to progress to the next phase,” Singh tweeted.

“I congratulate to DRDO on this landmark achievement towards realizing the Prime Minister’s vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat. I spoke to the scientists associated with the project and congratulated them on this great achievement. India is proud of them,”

 the Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said in another tweet.

The hypersonic cruise vehicle was launched using a proven solid rocket motor, which took it to an altitude of 30 km, where the aerodynamic heat shields were separated at hypersonic Mach number. The cruise vehicle separated from the launch vehicle and the air intake opened as planned.

The hypersonic combustion was sustained and the cruise vehicle continued its desired flight path at a velocity of six times the speed of sound i.e. nearly 2 km/s for more than 20 seconds. The critical events like fuel injection and auto ignition of scramjet demonstrated technological maturity and the scramjet engine performed in a textbook manner. The parameters of the launch and cruise vehicle, including the scramjet engine, were monitored by multiple tracking radars, electro-optical systems, and telemetry stations.

The HSTDV is an unmanned scramjet demonstration aircraft for hypersonic speed flight. Besides its utility for long-range cruise missiles of the future, the technology has multiple civilian applications also. It can be used for launching satellites at a low cost too.

The HSTDV cruise vehicle is mounted on a solid rocket motor, which will take it to a required altitude, and once it attains certain Mach numbers for speed, the cruise vehicle will be ejected out of the launch vehicle. Subsequently, the scramjet engine will be ignited automatically. After the Anti-Satellite Test (ASAT) test, this is the biggest achievement recently.

What makes it more unpredictable and lethal as compared to conventional missile systems is that the missile systems generally follow a ‘ballistic trajectory’ — paths that are easy to follow and detect. This gives the adversary time to prepare and launch a counter-attack, but a hypersonic weapons system on the other hand can change course at will and doesn’t follow any kind of flight plan that the enemy can predict. This also puts a larger area under threat. There’s no time for the targeted region to detect, identify, alert and then try to hit back.

In order for a weapon to be categorized as hypersonic, there are three factors that need to be taken into account. It needs to be able to fly at speeds of at least 5,000 kilometers per hour (Mach 5), keep low, and not lose maneuverability during flight.

The unmanned scramjet demonstration aircraft is capable of cruising at Mach 6 speed while carrying long-range and hypersonic cruise missiles. Traveling faster than the speed of sound, which is Mach 1, the HSTDV can be anywhere on Earth within one hour. Its biggest selling point is that it can also be used for launching satellites at a low cost. 

The success of HSTDV will help India in making its next-generation hypersonic missile - BrahMos-II. It is currently under development by the DRDO in a collaboration with Russia’s NPO Mashinostroyenia.